Friday, September 19, 2014

ESPN Eviscerates Ravens and NFL's Ray Rice Explanation

Oh boy! Nothing like dropping a bombshell on a Friday night. But man, if you are following the saga of the NFL, Baltimore Ravens and how they handled the Ray Rice incident, this is huge.

ESPN's Outside the Line produced a detailed report that went into great behind the scenes detail to explain what the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL may or may not have known while investigating now former Raven Ray Rice.

The report cites multiple sources who say the Ravens knew quite a bit more about what happened than they let on. But they gave Rice the benefit of the doubt because of the good deeds he'd done for them.

But it also details Rice's lawyer seeing the videotape long before it was made public and making the team aware of it. In fact, they apparently knew just hours after the February incident, exactly what happened. Which DIRECTLY contradicts what team owner Steve Bisciotti has gone on the record saying.

It also speaks about Ravens coach John Harbaugh wanting Rice gone immediately after hearing about what happened. Harbaugh was overruled by team president Dick Cass and G.M Ozzie Newsome. Harbaugh apparently tried again when two other players got in trouble to cut those two along with Rice. Again he was overruled. This all happened before the video became public.

Essentially, the report calls the Ravens liars.

And Roger Goodell along with his investigators are not spared. While not saying Goodell himself actually saw the video, the NFL itself was apparently well aware of what happened. The report does portray Goodell as regretting his decision early in the process, but he eventually bowed to pressure from the Ravens to do them a favor.

Again, you REALLY need to watch this report. If you thought highly of the NFL and their credibility before, this should end it. Of course the Jolly Roger's press conference on Friday didn't help things much either.